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Virtual Product Placement Infiltrates TV, Film, Games
What's fueling the virtual product placement fire? In a word, TiVo. American mass-media consumers are tired of boring, irrelevant, intrusive ads sandwiched between gripping stories with plot lines that can better be digested without reminders of what to do when your toilet bowl clogs or your mufflers go south, and they now have the technology to do something about it.
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U.S. advertisers have turned the practice of "product placement" into a lucrative market. This advertising phenomenon makes possible the insertion of an advertiser's product into a film, television program or video game.
The estimated value of the total product-placement industry in 2005 — when you include other creative arrangements such as barter (where the use of the product becomes the actual payment) or gratis (where the placement happens to enrich the plot or boost the character's profile) — was US$4.24 billion, according to Stamford, Conn., media and entertainment research and consulting firm PQ Media.
"Trends in the two major media — television and film — that account for more than 90 percent of the value of product placement seem to hold true to our predictions," said PQ Media Vice President Leo Kivijarv.
Further predictions are for the value of product placement to grow at double-digit rates in 2006, he noted.
Fueling the Fire
With advancements in technology, a hot outgrowth of traditional product placement has become "virtual" product placement, which employs software tools that allow products to be inserted, deleted and substituted without making any demands on scripts, cast members or production schedules.
With the right computer engineering, products roll on and off story boards and footage, offering promoters and content owners an alternative form of advertising.
What's fueling the virtual product placement fire? In a word, TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) . American mass-media consumers are tired of boring, irrelevant, intrusive ads sandwiched between gripping stories with plot lines that can better be digested without reminders of what to do when your toilet bowl clogs or your mufflers go south — and they now have the technology to do something about it. They can configure their entertainment systems so there are no commercial breaks.
Vendors, all the same, need to get their brands known and loved, and virtual product placement is an increasingly viable alternative. When it comes to computer-manipulated placements, the execution needs to look a lot better than just a cut-and-paste job. The viewer sees the product and may engage with it as part of the larger scene if it is placed successfully.
Negative Attention?
"If the quality is not there, the virtual placement will attract negative attention from the viewer, which is likely to result in a negative response," cautioned Allan Jaenicke, co-founder and managing director of Imagineer Systems, a UK-based provider of film and video post-production software tools. The company's "monet" placement station can perform virtual product placement for use in a broadcast, film or post-production setting.
"Both [cost-effectiveness and quality] are important when you consider the need for virtual product placements to be produced in higher volume and lower cost per placement compared to traditional 30-second spots," Jaenicke told the E-Commerce Times.
Imagineer's technology makes it possible to customize product-placement relevancy in a film or program to different geographic regions at the same time, he noted.
"We see larger broadcasters and content owners coming together this year to work out revenue models for exploring one of the significant benefits of virtual product placements, namely that they can be changed and adapted geographically as well as demographically. This provides additional revenue opportunities when programs are sold internationally," said Jaenicke.
Hot Spots
While films and television have been the hot spots for virtual product placement, marketers see lucrative dollar signs in bringing virtual product placement to other kinds of media too.
"Marketers continue to seek the most efficient methods to reach their target audiences, especially 18-to-34 years olds. They are looking at programs, films and other media," said Kivijarv of PQ Media.
Among those "other media" are video games. Interest in product placement integrated in video games is increasing, with proponents insisting gamers think ads in video games punch up the realism of the gaming experience. These positive reactions may in turn lead to positive brand awareness.
However, this reasoning may not always hold true. Such product placements risk overkill that can turn players away.
The Internet and video games "are media that have high consumer consumption among the coveted 18-to-34 market. That said, the success of these placements has yet to be determined," Kivijarv said.
In a recent survey on the issue, "half of the respondents said the placements gave the game a more realistic feel, but the other half complained that they were a distraction," he stated.
To be sure, marketers are becoming increasingly concerned that too much of a good thing can negate the good. The words "clutter" and "irrelevancy" are now frequently mentioned as risks that can yield negative results.
All the same, if 2006 becomes the year that product-placement gurus do something to avert errors and clutter, it could lead to greater profitability for those who can execute. To be effective will require thoughtful product placement — "not just throw it in there and we are all set," said Jeff Greenfield, editor of Product Placement News and executive vice president of 1st Approach, a marketing firm.
In 2006, marketers will also be focused on another media hot spot: mobile video.
Looking Ahead
"Obviously, more and more content is being made available via mobile devices," said Jaenicke. "Once we start watching movies on a phone, where is revenue going to come from? Not traditional 30-second spots, as it would be unacceptable for a consumer to have to pay bandwidth charges to watch a commercial."
An offering that can combine free or low-cost advertising based television with mobile devices would be attractive and a good use of virtual product placement, Jaenicke believes.
"You can target the viewer demographically; for example, you can have three different versions of the same film or program to download and stream the most appropriate one to the viewer, based on knowledge obtained when they purchased their telephone," he said.
Still, it may be too early to nail with certainty the strength and speed in which virtual product placement will travel in the mobile-device marketplace. "Mobile entertainment is only in its infancy stage," said PQ Media's Kivijarv, "and advertisers have to be convinced that it is a viable alternative to other media. The small screen makes the seamless integration of a product into a scene extremely difficult."


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Odile Decq
Odile Decq studied architecture at the Universities of Rennes and Paris. She is one of the few women architects to have received some of the most prestigious awards in her profession, from the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1996 to the recent Designer of the Year at the Salon Maison & Objet 2013. She is internationally known for always having fought, in this world of men, to express her sensorial and protean vision that continue to redefine the boundaries of her profession and which she has called hypertension, meaning the fact that a space should make us move, i.e. it should put us in tension.

subset: commoncrawl


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Some records slip below nearly every radar. These brilliant albums end up not only missing out on end of year plaudits but throughout the year these records failed to procure the reams of verbiage they deserved. These are the outsiders, the records which people weren't brave enough crank out on their airwaves nor fill a page or two of their publications with. These are the records so special that our writers sent death threats to our offices for not including in DiS' 50 albums of 2008.
So without further ado, these are the eight that you (and we) should have been celebrating, had they not been frustratingly lost, for whatever reason.
Parts & Labor
As an internet-deprived teenager attempting to negotiate the sucking musical void that was the late '90s/early '00s, I always found it easier to look backwards for musical heroes, most often to the nascent college rock scene of the early to mid-80s. R.E.M., Hüsker Dü, Throwing Muses; they maybe weren't musical pioneers in a strict technical sense, but all of them combined absolute sincerity with total mystique to carve indelible cuts on that decade and every one since. Furthermore they were all outrageously prolific, managing an album and an international tour every year, plus their music evolved at freakishly fast rates – Hüsker Dü's entire six-record studio career and R.E.M.'s journey from Murmur to Document happened between 1983 and 1987.
Okay, being prolific and changing your sound is hardly rare, but those bands undeniably had something, and plonked in front of The Chart Show, casting a grim eye over The Supernaturals' latest, I wished somebody in 1998 could have it too. Well, they didn't, but a decade on and Parts & Labor really, really do, and having put out four albums of increasing stridency, purpose and rabble-rousing fire in the same number of years (and certainly unafraid of conjuring the spirit of Hüsker Dü in particular), they should be well on their way to The Big Crossover, right?
Obviously not: despite being trailed by the absurdly anthemic (if grammatically troubling) 'Nowheres Nigh' (above), Parts & Labor's Receivers went pretty much the way of its predecessors: a pat on the head from the indie press and mild disbelief from fans that the Brooklynites' punchy, noise pop hadn't taken over the world... yet.
Actually for all 'Nowheres Nigh's Springseen-esque velocity (that last chorus will put hair on your chest) Receivers is for the main a lyrically dark, expansive-verging-on-sprawling noise folk record, marked by new guitarist Sarah Lipstate's droney textures and the hundreds of fan-sent samples woven into its tapestry. So maybe it wasn't the ideal record to take them over the top – that would have been last year's Mapmaker – but there's still not a song on Receivers that doesn't wend its way to the type of climax that makes you want to peg it over the Atlantic and give the Statue Of Liberty a high five. Like those classic college rock bands, they balance questing, arty leanings with a belief that a song isn't a song unless you can sing along.
With Luke Slater's very fine review barely over a month old then the point here isn't a reappraisal of Receivers; nor is it even a grumble that it didn't make more of a splash – the band probably couldn't care less. It's just to simply state the fact that Parts & Labor put out another magnificent album this year, and it slipped out relatively unnoticed, once again. They'll probably put out another next year, and maybe that'll be the breakthrough; if not the one the year after that or the year after that. It's going to happen. But for now it's not too late to stop 2008 being another year you let a Parts & Labor album pass you by, as trust me - don't get it now and a day will come when you'll feel like a right tit.


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"Hopeless Dawn—Joyful Morning," Ensign, May 1976, 10
Hopeless Dawn—Joyful Morning
I am truly honored to follow at this pulpit the President of the Church, even the prophet of God, Spencer W. Kimball. My thoughts today have been centered on the land of his forebears, even Great Britain.
London, England, is steeped in history. Who has not heard of Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, or the River Thames? Of lesser renown, yet priceless in value, are the truly magnificent galleries of art situated in this city of culture.
One gray, wintry afternoon I visited the famed Tate Gallery. I marveled at the landscapes of Gainsborough, the portraits of Rembrandt, and the storm-laden clouds of Constable. Tucked away in a quiet corner of the third floor was a masterpiece which not only caught my attention but captured my heart. The artist, Frank Bramley, had painted a humble cottage facing a wind-swept sea. Kneeling at the side of an older woman was a young, grief-filled wife who mourned the loss of her seafaring husband. The spent candle at the window ledge told of her fruitless, night-long vigil. The huge gray clouds were all that remained of the tempest-torn night.
I sensed her loneliness. I felt her despair. The hauntingly vivid inscription which the artist gave to his work told the tragic story. It read: A Hopeless Dawn.
How the young widow longed for the comfort, even the reality, of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Requiem":
"Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill."
For her and many others who have loved and lost dear ones, each dawn is hopeless. Such is the experience of those who regard the grave as the end and immortality as but a dream.
The famed scientist, Madame Marie Curie, returned to her home the night of the funeral for her husband, Pierre Curie, who was killed in an accident in the streets of Paris, and made this entry in her diary:
"They filled the grave and put sheaves of flowers on it. Everything is over. Pierre is sleeping his last sleep beneath the earth; it is the end of everything, everything, everything." (Vincent Sheehan, trans., Madame Curie: A Biography by Eve Curie, Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing Co., 1943, p. 249.)
The atheist, Bertrand Russell, adds his testament: "No fire, no heroism, no integrity of thought and feeling can preserve an individual life beyond the grave." And Schopenhauer, the German philosopher and pessimist, was even more bitter. He wrote: "To desire immortality is to desire the eternal perpetuation of a great mistake."
In reality, every thoughtful person has asked himself the universal question, best phrased by the venerable, perfect, and upright man named Job, who, centuries ago, asked: "If a man die, shall he live again?" (Job 14:14.) Through inspiration from on high, Job answered his own question:
"Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
"That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
"For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. …
"In my flesh shall I see God." (Job 19:23–26.)
Few statements in scripture reveal so clearly a divine truth as does Paul's epistle to the Corinthians: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Cor. 15:22.)
Frequently, death comes as an intruder. It is an enemy that suddenly appears in the midst of life's feast, putting out its lights and gaiety. It visits the aged as they walk on faltering feet. Its summons is heard by those who have scarcely reached midway in life's journey, and often it hushes the laughter of little children. Death lays its heavy hand upon those dear to us and at times leaves us baffled and wondering. In certain situations, as in great suffering and illness, death comes as an angel of mercy. But for the most part, we think of it as the enemy of human happiness.
The plight of the widow, for instance, is a recurring theme throughout Holy Writ. Our hearts go out to the widow at Zarephath. Gone was her husband. Consumed was her scant supply of food. Starvation and death awaited. Then came Elijah, God's prophet, who brought to her, through her faith, heavenly peace.
We remember also the widow of Nain. She grieved over the loss of her son. Her abiding faith, her earnest prayer, brought forth a divine gift. The Lord Jesus Christ returned to her and to life her precious son.
But what of today? Is there comfort for the grieving heart? Does God remember still the widow in her travail?
Not far from this tabernacle there lived two sisters. Each had two handsome sons. Each had a loving husband. Each lived in comfort, prosperity, and good health. Then the grim reaper visited their homes. First, each lost a son; then the husband and father. Friends visited; words brought a measure of comfort; but grief continued unrelieved.
The years passed. Hearts remained broken. The two sisters sought and achieved seclusion. They shut themselves off from the world which surrounded them. Alone they remained with their remorse. Then there came to a latter-day prophet of God, who knew well these two sisters, the inspiration of the Lord which directed him to their plight. Elder Harold B. Lee left his busy office and visited the penthouse home of the lonely widows. He listened to their pleadings. He felt the sorrow of their hearts. Then he called them to the service of God and to mankind. Each looked outward into the lives of others and upward into the face of God. Peace replaced turmoil. Confidence dispelled despair. God had once again remembered the widow and, through a prophet, brought divine comfort.
The darkness of death can ever be dispelled by the light of revealed truth. "I am the resurrection, and the life," spoke the Master. "He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
"And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." (John 11:25–26.)
This reassurance, yes, even holy confirmation of life beyond the grave, could well be the peace promised by the Savior when he assured his disciples:
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27.)
"In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you …
"That where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14:2–3.)
Out of the darkness and horror of Calvary came the voice of the Lamb, saying, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." (Luke 23:46.) And the dark was no longer dark, for he was with his Father. He had come from God and to God he had returned. So also those who walk with God in this earthly pilgrimage know from blessed experience that he will not abandon his children who trust in him. In the night of death his presence will be "better than a light and safer than a known way." (From "God Knows," by Minnie Louise Haskins.)
The reality of the resurrection was voiced by the martyr Stephen as he looked upward and cried, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." (Acts 7:56.)
Saul, on the road to Damascus, had a vision of the risen, exalted Christ. Later, as Paul, defender of truth and fearless missionary in the service of the Master, he bore witness of the risen Lord as he declared to the saints at Corinth:
"Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. …
"He was buried, and … he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. …
"He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
"After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once. …
"He was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
"And last of all he was seen of me." (1 Cor. 15:3–8.)
In our dispensation, this same testimony was spoken boldly by the Prophet Joseph Smith, as he and Sidney Rigdon testified:
"And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!
"For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—
"That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God." (D&C 76:22–24.)
This is the knowledge that sustains. This is the truth that comforts. This is the assurance that guides those bowed down with grief out of the shadows and into the light.
Such help is not restricted to the elderly, the well-educated, or a select few. It is available to all.
Several years ago, the Salt Lake City newspapers published an obituary notice of a close friend—a mother and wife taken by death in the prime of her life. I visited the mortuary and joined a host of persons gathered to express condolence to the distraught husband and motherless children. Suddenly the smallest child, Kelly, recognized me and took my hand in hers. "Come with me," she said, and she led me to the casket in which rested the body of her beloved mother. "I'm not crying," she said, "and neither must you. Many times my mommy told me about death and life with Heavenly Father. I belong to my mommy and my daddy. We'll all be together again." To my mind came the words of the Psalmist: "Out of the mouth of babes … hast thou ordained strength." (Ps. 8:2.)
Through tear-moistened eyes, I saw my young friend's beautiful and faith-filled smile. For her, whose tiny hand yet clasped mine, there would never be a hopeless dawn. Sustained by her unfailing testimony, knowing that life continues beyond the grave, she, her father, her brothers, her sisters, and indeed all who share this knowledge of divine truth can declare to the world: "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." (Ps. 30:5.)
With all the strength of my soul, I testify that God lives, that his Beloved Son is the firstfruits of the resurrection, that the gospel of Jesus Christ is that penetrating light that makes of every hopeless dawn a joyful morning.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.


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AP News
US Officials: Russia Behind Spread of Virus Disinformation
4 years agoon
WASHINGTON — U.S. officials say Russian intelligence officers are spreading disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic through English-language websites, trying to exploit a crisis that America is struggling to contain before the presidential election in November.
Russian officials on Wednesday rejected the accusations as "conspiracy theories" and a "persistent phobia." One of the sites singled out by the U.S. posted a response denouncing as "categorically false" the American assertions that it was linked to the Russian military intelligence service or was involved in propaganda.
The information had previously been classified, but U.S. officials said it had been downgraded so they could more freely discuss it. Officials said they were doing so now to sound the alarm about the particular websites and to expose what they say is a clear link between the sites and Russian intelligence.
Between late May and early July, one of the officials said, the websites published about 150 articles about the pandemic response, including coverage aimed either at propping up Russia or denigrating the U.S.
Among the headlines that caught the attention of U.S. officials were "Russia's Counter COVID-19 Aid to America Advances Case for Détente," which suggested that Russia had given urgent and substantial aid to the U.S. to fight the pandemic, and "Beijing Believes COVID-19 is a Biological Weapon," which amplified statements by the Chinese.
The spread of disinformation, including by Russia, is an urgent concern heading into the November vote. U.S. officials want to avoid a repeat of the 2016 contest, when a Russian troll farm launched a covert social media campaign to divide American public opinion and to favor then-candidate Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The U.S. government's chief counterintelligence executive warned in a rare public statement Friday about Russia's continued use of internet trolls to advance their goals.
U.S. Officials Have Warned Before About the Spread of Disinformation Tied to the Pandemic
The pandemic and race relations and protests across the U.S. have offered fertile territory for misinformation or outfight falsehoods. Trump himself has come under scrutiny for sharing misinformation about a disproved drug for treating the coronavirus in videos that were taken down by Twitter and Facebook.
Officials did not say whether the effort behind these particular websites was directly related to the November election, though some of the coverage appeared to denigrate Trump's Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, and called to mind Russian efforts in 2016 to exacerbate race relations in America and spread corruption allegations against U.S. political figures.
U.S. officials have warned before about the spread of disinformation tied to the pandemic. But on Tuesday, they went further by singling out a particular information agency that is registered in Russia, InfoRos. It operates a series of websites — InfoRos.ru, Infobrics.org and OneWorld.press — that have leveraged the pandemic to promote anti-Western objectives and to spread disinformation.
Officials say the sites promote their narratives in a sophisticated way that they liken to money laundering, where stories in well-written English — and often with pro-Russian sentiment — are cycled through other news sources to conceal their origin and enhance the legitimacy of the information.
The sites also amplify stories that originate elsewhere, the government officials said.
An email to InfoRos was not immediately returned Tuesday. OneWorld rejected the allegations as "categorically false" in a statement posted Wednesday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the allegations "some kind of a persistent phobia." He said the Russian press was continuing to cover the coronavirus and that there was "no need need to blame objective and quality work of the media."
A headline Tuesday on InfoRos.ru about the unrest roiling American cities read "Chaos in the Blue Cities," accompanying a story that lamented how New Yorkers who grew up under the tough-on-crime approach of former Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg "and have zero street smarts" must now "adapt to life in high-crime urban areas."
InfoRos and One World's Ties to the Russian State Have Attracted Scrutiny in the Past
Another story carried the headline of "Ukrainian Trap for Biden," and claimed that "Ukrainegate" — a reference to stories surrounding Biden's son Hunter and his former ties to a Ukraine gas company — "keeps unfolding with renewed vigor."
InfoRos and One World's ties to the Russian state have attracted scrutiny in the past from European disinformation analysts.
In 2019, a European Union task force that studies disinformation campaigns identified One World as "a new addition to the pantheon of Moscow-based disinformation outlets." The task force noted that One World's content often parrots the Russian state agenda on issues including the war in Syria.
A report published last month by a second, nongovernmental organization, Brussels-based EU DisinfoLab, examined links between InfoRos and One World to Russian military intelligence. The researchers identified technical clues tying their websites to Russia and identified some financial connections between InfoRos and the government.
"InfoRos is evolving in a shady grey zone, where regular information activities are mixed with more controversial actions that could be quite possibly linked to the Russian state's information operations," the report's authors concluded.
On its English-language Facebook page, InfoRos describes itself as an "Information agency: world through the eyes of Russia."
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A report to be presented this week at the Black Hat USA conference in Las Vegas will detail which vehicles are most vulnerable to hacker attacks via a car's Bluetooth, telematics or on-board phone applications.
Researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, who in the past have issued reports on the most vulnerable vehicles, intend to release an update showing the most and least hackable cars.
Ford's Sync Infotainment System. At last year's Def Con conference, researchers pointed to the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape as vehicles whose internal networks they could gain access to in order to control critical functions.
"A malicious attacker leveraging a remote vulnerability could do anything from enabling a microphone for eavesdropping to turning the steering wheel to disabling the brakes," the researchers said in a brief outlining their upcoming report. "Unfortunately, research has only been presented on three or four particular vehicles. Each manufacturer designs their fleets differently; therefore analysis of remote threats must avoid generalities."
The most hackable vehicles include the 2014 Jeep Cherokee, the 2015 Cadillac Escalade and the 2014 Toyota Prius. The most secure cars include the Dodge Viper, the Audi A8, and the Honda Accord, according to an interview the researchers had with Dark Reading.
The report is expected to also address how automotive network security has changed over the last five years and how to better protect vehicles from cyberattacks in the future.
At the 2013 Def Con conference, Miller, a security engineer at Twitter, and Valasek, director of security intelligence at security service IOActive, described ways to launch cyberattacks to control brakes and steering on a Prius and Ford Escape.
The two researchers also revealed a prototype device that could thwart vehicle hacking. Their intrusion prevention device plugs into a vehicle's OBD-II port, watches data traffic on a car's internal network and then blocks any anomalies.
Miller and Valasek didn't physically test the vehicles cited in this year's report for vulnerabilities, relying instead on information about the vehicles' automated capabilities and internal network.
"We can't say for sure we can hack the Jeep and not the Audi," Valasek told Dark Reading. "But... the radio can always talk to the brakes" because both are on the same network.
All modern vehicles have a controller area network (CAN), which is an internal bus that allows microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other. Gaining access through a wireless connection could potentially offer access to critical systems such as brakes and steering.
Nick Colella, Infotainment Manager for Ford, said his and other companies are researching the use of Ethernet as a separate, more secure and faster network for vehicles.
Unlike mobile device makers that use state-of-the-art technology to secure smartphones and tablets, the automotive industry has generally been a technology laggard. The computer systems in automobiles, like so many other systems, can be relatively old because of the three- to five-year vehicle development cycle.
"Nothing dates a car quicker than the electronics. You can get into five-year-old luxury car and it...feels like a Nintendo game...compared to the experience on your smartphone," said Scott Morrison, a distinguished engineer at CA's Layer 7 Technologies.
Mobile devices are being connected to vehicles through APIs such as Apple's CarPlay, Google's Automotive Link and the OS-agnostic standard MirrorLink.
In a sense, the car is becoming a large mobile device, according to Morrison and others. As the automobile industry moves toward connected vehicles, capable of communicating with each other and the infrastructure around them, it also has to address how they'll protect the security of the vehicle's microprocessors.
Lucas Mearian covers consumer data storage, consumerization of IT, mobile device management, renewable energy, telematics/car tech and entertainment tech for Computerworld. Follow Lucas on Twitter at @lucasmearian or subscribe to Lucas's RSS feed. His e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com.
See more by Lucas Mearian on Computerworld.com.
Read more about cybercrime and hacking in Computerworld's Cybercrime and Hacking Topic Center.


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This article is more than 1 year old
'Alien' lifeform wakened from 120,000 year Arctic slumber
Meddling boffins refuse to heed sci-fi common sense
American scientists, showing the reckless disregard for the warnings implicit in quality science fiction that is so regrettably common in the boffinry community, have revived an ancient lifeform which has been slumbering beneath the Arctic ice pack for 120,000 years. To add insult to injury, the scientists believe that their laboratory revenant may be related to indestructible super-aliens yet to be discovered on extraterrestrial iceworlds.
The creature in question is named Herminiimonas glaciei, and was revived from its aeons-long sleep by Dr Jennifer Loveland-Curtze and her colleagues from Pennsylvania State University. The purplish-brown, blobby entity was "coaxed back to life with great patience", according to Penn State.
The thinking is that if life can survive millennia of terrible cold beneath a glacier here on Earth, it might do so on other planets - perhaps here in the solar system, under the Martian or possible lunar icecaps.
"These extremely cold environments are the best analogues of possible extraterrestrial habitats", says Loveland-Curtze.
"The exceptionally low temperatures can preserve cells and nucleic acids for even millions of years... studying these bacteria can provide insights into how cells can survive and even grow under extremely harsh conditions, such as temperatures down to -56˚C, little oxygen, low nutrients, high pressure and limited space."
Loveland-Curtze believes that study of H Glacei in the lab can be done safely, as it is a micro-organism, rather than a huge, ravening blobomination type of affair. In fact, it's uncommonly small and puny even for a bacterium - 10 to 50 times smaller even than the well-known E Coli, and correspondingly more capable of worming its way in where it isn't wanted.
Loveland-Curtze assures us that H Glacei isn't a deadly pathogen like E Coli, however. Though she does sound a note of caution:
"It can pass through a 0.2 micron filter, which is the filter pore size commonly used in sterilization of fluids in laboratories and hospitals," she warns.
"If there are other ultra-small bacteria that are pathogens, then they could be present in solutions presumed to be sterile. In a clear solution very tiny cells might grow but not create the density sufficient to make the solution cloudy".
In summary, then, we're looking at an ancient lifeform - albeit tiny - recently wakened by meddling scientists from its hundred-thousand-year sleep beneath the polar icecap. It's capable of surviving, perhaps, in the most hostile alien interplanetary environments known to man. It can evade mankind's toughest lab sterilisation precautions.
Meanwhile humanity may be nearing its first attempt at a manned mission to Mars. Coincidence? Or have the glacial supermicrobes, having long ago seeded Earth, merely been waiting for a vector species to arise and carry them onward to Mars for the next stage in their campaign of interplanetary conquest?
Loveland-Curtze and Co's scholarly paper can be read by those with the relevant subscription here. ®


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Additional words: Samuel Strang
Late Of The Pier – 'Heartbeat' (Parlophone)
Deranged prog-pop conundrums, Late Of The Pier's warped, flickering synths are here twinned with Samuel Eastgate's finding of a vocal that's as much Sparks don Ron Mael's shrill operatic bawl as it is Marilyn Manson's melody-deprived croak. But as Eastgate hollers away that they're "in and out for the count / having the shout before the drought", 'Heartbeat' rears up as another slab of the Castle Donington wizards at their apocalyptic best, like some theatrical Associates swansong where Billy Mackenzie got together to with Brain Eno over sangria and decided that gaudy guitar solos would sit well against their mechanical grind. Given the recent duds Erol Alkan's thrown up, this trip to the circus is the territory that the electroclash darling needed to get his teeth into. Off the awesome pandemonium that is Fantasy Black Channel (review), this joins the pile of hypnotic preceding releases, eating away at any taste you might have like some malignant cyst listening to Genesis. If nothing else they should be applauded for not relentlessly pushing 'Bathroom Gurgle' until everyone was eating from their palms. SS
Noah & The Whale – 'Five Years Time' (Mercury)
An unexpected success on the hit parade – it's resting at ten, before its physical release – this delicate slice of folksy loveliness from London foursome Noah & The Whale mightn't tickle the taste buds of those demanding high energy from their standalone cuts, but it's a charmingly subtle ditty replete with regulation handclaps and lyrics delivered deadpan, about heartfelt subject matters wholly sweet. It can pass by the listener completely unless you really focus in on its whistles and twangs, but so far as never-saw-that-coming wins this summer go, 'Five Years Time' settles at second behind 'Dance Wiv Me'.
Kasms – 'Taxidermy' (Trouble)
Somewhere in my mind, some moons ago, Ipso Facto made out with The Horrors and birthed a demon-fronted garage band by the name of Kasms. And then: bloody hell, said band only turned out to be A Real One. With the borderline possessed Rachel Mary Callaghan up front, this London foursome aren't tearing up any rulebooks with their stylish noise, but they deliver the goods in such punchy fashion that their atmospheric punk can't be ignored. It's a short and sharp burst of aggression that bodes well for the future.
The Futureheads – 'Walking Backwards' (Nul)
The revival of Sunderland's favourite alt-pop rockers continues as their latest offering from album three This Is Not The World (review) picks apart the process of being on a label where control isn't entirely in your own hands. Get it? It's, like, autobiographical. But who cares, really? It's got puppets that look a lot like Muppets in the video, and that's all that matters. The Futureheads' spiky-riffed formula might not have significantly altered any since their self-titled debut, but why fix what isn't broken when you can make it that bit more appealing by simply getting all Bert and Ernie?
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Video: The Futureheads, 'Walking Backwards'
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The Shortwave Set – 'Now 'Til 69' (Wall of Sound)
Danger Mouse-produced shimmer-pop from The Shortwave Set, who here make out like the '80s never truly ended with an acoustic-strummed and vaguely Roxy Music-ish number that isn't quite as special as its on-paper promise suggests. Pleasant on the ear, for sure, but also rather too light for anyone to truly care – repeat-play potential sits at zilch.
John & Jehn – 'Fear Fear Fear' (Faculty)
John & Jehn are perhaps more 'fight-pop' than the sub-sub-genre's pioneers, Dananananaykroyd – while the Scots use their hyperactivity to up temperatures, there's true, tangible tension in the music of this real-life couple that threatens to engulf the listener completely, pounding their synapses 'til submission's the only option. It's not battering-ram stuff, stylistically, either, owing much to Lee Hazelwood's downplayed melancholy. Yet still the hairs are raised, and the throat dries: more drama in three minutes than an EastEnders omnibus.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – 'Midnight Man' (Mute)
Okay, you rumbled us – this was released officially last Monday, but no Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds release should be without a mention on DiS, especially given the brilliance of the outfit's latest LP Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (review) and so 'Midnight Man' appears here. If there's a frontman alive today who can vocalise the heart ache and break, and gut-feeling temptations and desires, the burning pits of depression and the scorched soul of those touched by a beauty unobtainable, of the average man better than Cave, we've not heard them. He's magnificent, a ringleader for the tormented, for the tortured; he's the gesticulating master of ceremonies, exorcisms and séances. Look, we just love the man. Yeah? Yeah.
Video: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, 'Midnight Man'
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Santogold 'Lights Out' (Atlantic)
Dancing off back into the closet only to reappear in some equally garish frock, every Santogold single has been like watching some faceless princess disappear melodramatically only to reappear moments later in some new costume to wow all. It's a different one each time, but no matter how many outfits Santi White might own, doesn't mean they're any cop. New-wave drudgery. SS
The Gutter Twins – 'God's Children' (Sub Pop)
Lifted from their stellar Saturnalia LP, 'God's Children' serves as a superlative showcase single for one of the rock records of the year to date – Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli always made for an appealing duo in the mind's ear, and here they make good on the promise laid by separate careers of myriad ups and down(ers)s, fusing to formulate soaring choruses that dally with imagery of suicide and diving into an unspecified darkness. But despite the morose overtones, 'God's Children' positively lifts the listener from whatever stupor they'd previously descended into, boiling the blood like all passionate art should.
Tinchy Stryder 'Stryderman' (Takeover)
Any respectable grime tyke needs a self-absorbed opus soaked in a healthy dose of braggadocio to call their own round Bow – and this is Tinchy Stryder's call to arms. After last year's Star In The Hood, the former Ruff Sqwad upstart has roped in dreary garage connoisseurs Kano and Fraser T Smith to produce and Wiley for the remix, so shows some aspiring nouse from Stryder, holding hands and hoping for the heady heights of grime royalty. For the moment, though, guesses are it'll continue to elude him, as 'Stryderman' is a somewhat pedestrian affair. But who knows what he'll be bent into when he appears on nu-world music banshees Gang Gang Dance's return, Saint Dymphna. SS
Video: Tinchy Stryder, 'Stryderman'
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If you're reading this at becomingsupermommy.blogspot.com, you may have noticed something different.
My header.
As for other momentous occasions in the life of the SuperMommy family, I have updated the picture. No, I'm not pregnant. No, none of the children lost a limb. (Yet.)
No, you may notice that the SuperMommy family is... moving.
Not to a new house, but to a new blog.
Yes, my wonderful, amazing, incredible readers- I'm moving. My new blog is chicagonow.com/becoming-supermommy. That's right, I've joined the ranks of Chicago Now bloggers. Chicago Tribune, prepare yourself! I'm coming!
As for all of you, my amazing, incredible, spectacular readers... not too much is going to change. The address of the blog will, of course, but the content won't.
Actually, the content will, a bit. There are still a few straggling sponsored posts coming up, and they'll be here. But the new stuff?
All at the new blog.
PLEASE- sign up to get my posts in your email! It's SO much better for all of us, what with Facebook trying to destroy the little lives of us little bloggers. Sign up to get Becoming SuperMommy in your mail, and I'll see you over at Chicago Now.
So CLICK ON OVER, and get to know my new digs!
Here's to the next great adventure!
I love you all. <3 p="">


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For the last week, the FCC has manned an exhibit booth here at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and while we're not among the electronics giants, we got lots of traffic. It's been great - our days were filled with constant streams of attendees. Lots of questions. Lots of comments.
So what questions and comments was the FCC getting? Lots of Ham operators stopping by to say hi and talk about the old days getting their licenses. Consumers telling us we're not doing enough on indecency and obscenity and consumers telling us we're doing too much. A surprisingly large percentage of people telling us they're glad to have us here, and a handful that ask "What are you guys doing here".
At our booth, we told visitors about our efforts to create a broadband plan. We showed them the FCC's new Reboot site. We explained that we're the FCC, not FTC. We directed them to the restrooms.
The CES show itself is a sensory overload. Biggest television monitors, smallest devices with amazing capabilities. A very big show with lots of attendees and acres of exhibits.
Our experience here was not limited to the exhibit booth. A Saturday panel featuring Commissioners McDowell, Clyburn, and Baker included a Q&A session on FCC activities and on Friday, I went to hear the standing-room only session with FCC Chairman Genachowski. It was great to hear our Chairman talk about his desire to bring the FCC into the 21st century. Judging by the changes we've seen so far, I think this goal is well underway.


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
The commission consists of a City Council representative and a citizen representative from each of the member cities. Five of the fourteen commissioners are elected commission officers, who form the Executive Committee.
The Northern Dakota County Cable Communications Commission (NDC4) is a municipal joint powers cooperative formed in 1982 by the seven cities of Inver Grove Heights, Lilydale, Mendota, Mendota Heights, South St. Paul, Sunfish Lake, and West St. Paul.
The commission provides consumer protection services for cable television subscribers, and manages institutional programming including city meetings, government programs, and educational programs on Channels 18, 19, and 20. The commission also oversees local community programming through our non-profit corporation, Town Square Television.


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After two hectic weeks of education activities on São Tomé, Rayna Bell (Cornell University) arrived and the four of us joined the botanists, Tom Daniel, Jim Shevock, Miko Nadel, Tamas Szuts (our spider guy) and Andrew Stanbridge (our photographer) on Príncipe. I have asked Andrew, a veteran of three Gulf of Guinea expeditions, to illustrate some of what transpired while the group was divided.
Our botany team, day one on Principe: Jim Shevock, Tom Daniel and Miko Nadel.
Botany team en route to climb the mesa. Back left in the yellow hat is our guide Baloo.
Jim on the "trail" to the mesa.
Male Leptopelis palmatus found on the trail to the mesa. The females are the largest tree frogs in Africa.
Tom discovers Principina, a unique sedge.
Miko on top of the mesa
Jim and Tom collecting specimens along the route to Roça Sundy.
First Academy visit to the offshore island "Jockey's Bonnet".
Bonnet seedeater, unique to the small island of "Jockey's Bonnet".
Tom carrying specimens upriver.
Tamas and "Bobby" Bronkhurst pooting spiders on Jockey's Bonnet.
Here is the parting shot.
All images by Andrew Stanbridge
We are most grateful to Arlindo de Ceita Carvalho, Director General, Victor Bomfim, and Salvador Sousa Pontes of the Ministry of Environment, Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe for their continuing authorization to collect and export specimens for study, and to Ned Seligman, Roberta dos Santos and Quintino Quade of STePUP of Sao Tomehttp://www.stepup.st/, our "home away from home". We gratefully acknowledge the support of the G. Lindsay Field Research Fund, Hagey Research Venture Fund of the California Academy of Sciences for largely funding our initial two expeditions (GG I, II). The Société de Conservation et Développement (SCD) and Africa's Eden provided logistics, ground transportation and lodging (GG III-V), and special thanks for the generosity of private individuals who made the GG III-V expeditions possible: George G. Breed, Gerry F. Ohrstrom, Timothy M. Muller, Mrs. W. H. V. Brooke, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Murakami, Hon. Richard C. Livermore, Prof. & Mrs. Evan C. Evans III, Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Taylor, Velma and Michael Schnoll, and Sheila Farr Nielsen; GG VI supporters include Bom Bom Island and the Omali Lodge for logistics and lodging, The Herbst Foundation, The "Blackhawk Gang," the Docent Council of the California Academy of Sciences in honor of Kathleen Lilienthal, Bernard S. Schulte, Corinne W. Abel, Prof. & Mrs. Evan C. Evans III, Mr. and Mrs. John Sears, John S. Livermore and Elton Welke. GG VII has been funded by a very generous grant from The William K. Bowes Jr. Foundation, and substantial donations from Mrs. W.H.V."D.A." Brooke, Thomas B. Livermore, Rod C. M. Hall, Timothy M. Muller, Prof. and Mrs. Evan C. Evans, Mr. and Mrs. John L. Sullivan Jr., Clarence G. Donahue, Mr. and Mrs. John Sears, and a heartening number of "Coolies", "Blackhawk Gang" returnees and members of the Academy Docent Council. Once again we are deeply grateful for the continued support of the Omali Lodge (São Tomé) and Bom Bom Island (Príncipe) for both logistics and lodging and especially for sponsoring part our education efforts for GG VII.
Our expeditions can be supported by tax-deductable donations to "California Academy of Sciences Gulf of Guinea Fund"


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Double win for Haiti: human waste into valuable fertilizer
SOIL is enabling communities in Haiti to transform human waste into a resource for sustainable livelihoods, agriculture, and reforestation. The organization is creating a lasting impact by seeding a new economy based on nutrients—one that a multinational corporation is now pledging to support.
Three years after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people in Haiti, many international aid organizations have left behind a dubious legacy. Only a fraction of the $9.3 billion that donor nations pledged actually reached the ground in Haiti, and very little of that money went to efforts to rebuild the nation.
A host of international aid organizations often did more harm than good, according to journalist Jonathan Katz. Haiti is still grappling with the first cholera outbreak ever recorded in the nation, which was brought in by United Nations troops and has killed 8,000 people and sickened 649,000 more.
Today in Port-au-Prince, the capital, 350,000 Haitians still live in tents, and fewer than 25 percent of Haitians in cities have access to adequate sanitation. In lieu of toilets, people must find other ways to dispose of waste—such as plastic bags, abandoned houses, or the ocean.
The 11,000 temporary toilets that were installed by aid groups after the quake are no longer being serviced. That means 11,000 very full reservoirs of human waste that pose a significant health hazard.
Despite the challenges, there are effective solutions at work in Haiti. SOIL, which stands for Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods, is working with communities to install a low-cost sanitation system that also supports local agriculture, the environment, and local economies.
SOIL's ecological sanitation (EcoSan) toilets now serve more than 24,000 people across Haiti, and are virtually odor free. Unlike many international aid organizations that built toilets and stopped maintaining them when they left, SOIL's model was grown from within the country and integrates maintenance services that also generate local jobs.
For a low monthly fee, SOIL workers maintain the toilets and collect the waste, delivering it to a composting facility (via SOIL's Poopmobile), where it composts at high heat for six months. The process kills pathogens and creates a nutrient-rich fertilizer that is being sold to farms and used for tree planting.
Sasha Kramer, co-founder of SOIL, said that the work has gone through three phases since the organization's launch in 2006—sanitation and toilets, developing composting facilities, and now linking the compost back to the agricultural and food sector. The organization focused first on making toilets accessible to the public, and learned some hard lessons along the way.
"When we first started, we were really interested in reaching the largest number of people possible," Kramer says. "And we thought that the best way to do that was to build public toilets that were maintained by the community, and that everyone could have access to.
"People had advised us against this, and we were very naïve and didn't listen. We did this for two or three years before we understood that the tragedy of the commons is very much a reality.
"If you build something that is accessible to everyone, but that no one is paid to maintain, then it won't be maintained. I think that this lesson could be carried into other sectors as well.
"The initial enthusiasm will carry people through for a few months, but in the end, no one wants to clean up anyone else's poop for free—and understandably so."
For SOIL, the lesson learned was that, ultimately, sustainable livelihoods are the most pressing need for people, and the key to lasting change. "That's why we've moved away from public toilets, and into setting up a household sanitation system where people pay a small monthly fee to have their toilet waste collected," Kramer says.
"That fee then funds the people to do the service and maintenance of the toilets. I'm much more hopeful that this could be a long-term solution that could be picked up and replicated by the private sector, instead of a public toilet solution that was very dependent on ongoing funding from donors."
Households, schools, clinics, and tourism cooperatives are welcoming the EcoSan toilets. In some parts of Haiti, groups of five families share a semi-private toilet and divide the cost of maintenance.
"The idea of being able to create a resource—fertilizer—here in Haiti, instead of having to import it, has been very appealing to many people," says Kramer. "One of the real drivers of this appeal is the strong culture of independence and national pride in Haiti."
Kramer first came to Haiti in 2004 with a group of human rights observers after a coup overthrew the elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "I came to observe a demonstration, and I was just totally swept away by the courage and amazing resiliency I felt in the people here," Kramer says.
Kramer, still an ecology graduate student at Stanford University in California, ended up returning 12 times over the course of two years. "I feel I was lucky, because I was able to come to Haiti without already having any preconceived notions," Kramer says.
"I really had a chance to get to know the country and the very respected leaders in the communities where I was working. Had I not had those two years, it would have been very difficult to start an organization. When I did co-found SOIL, I had a good sense of who I could talk to in the community, and who was really trusted."
Kramer's relationships within local communities were instrumental to building SOIL's founding team, which she credits as one of the organization's key success factors.
"I feel like everything is learnable, except respect," said Kramer. "And this is a group of people who are very respectful to their fellow Haitians, and who are also respected by the community. That made a huge difference for SOIL."
Supporting livelihoods is the final step of the sanitation loop, where compost supports local agriculture and food production. Haiti's agriculture sector has been struggling with heavily depleted soils and poor yields because of deforestation and environmental degradation.
Today, the nation still imports 50 percent of its food. By turning thousands of gallons of human waste into compost each week, SOIL has the potential to transform this problem dramatically—and now international investors are taking note.
The multinational beer company Heineken, which recently bought the Haitian beer brewery, Prestige, has pledged to invest $40 million in Haiti, and to work with 18,000 sorghum farmers so that it can source its sorghum locally.
[Editor's note: The original version of this blog post gave the wrong number of sorghum farmers who work with Heineken.]
"Heineken has said that they would like to purchase 50,000 gallons of compost this year, which they'll be providing to sorghum farmers," Kramer says.
"This is an example of how large international business can really support sustainable nutrient economies—and sustainable development in general—by making this type of investment. This creates a market demand for sustainable sanitation, and this partnership is something that could be replicable globally. It's really exciting."
SOIL was recently selected as an early entry prize winner in the Nutrients for All, an Ashoka Changemakers competition that is seeking solutions to ensure the availability of nutrients for healthy, natural ecosystems, farms, food, and people.
• Check out the Nutrients for All campaign page for a three-part podcast with Sasha Kramer, as well as commentary from other global experts that are working to create vitality for people and the planet.
• Ashoka Changemakers® provides the tools and resources to empower everyone to contribute to a better world. Our community's mission is to grow new ideas through transparency and collaboration, a process of Open Growth.


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12 hours agoMember-onlyI Can't Free Myself From HimWill we remain shackled until the end? — My eyes sprung open. The dark, purple ceiling seemed to be closing in on me. My arms lay by my sides; they felt heavier than normal. Something hard was behind my head. Something hard was beneath my body. I shuffled slightly. It was a table. I was lying on a…Divorce4 min readDivorce4 min read
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Feb 13, 2024Member-onlyMy Husband Blocked Our EscapeOur daughter clung to me — My body froze as barking erupted from the living room. My arm remained outstretched, reaching for the freshly clean towel that needed to be folded. The sound of claws on wood reached my ears and my chest began to thud. …Mental Health5 min readMental Health5 min read
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Two young thieves walked into John's Beauty Supply store in Chicago on Monday morning, pulled out a bottle of pepper spray and a gun, and went straight for the good stuff: remy human hair extensions.
A female burglar pepper-sprayed a worker behind the counter before grabbing about 10 packs of remy hair, which sell for $100 each. A male thief held a gun to another employee and had her take $1,000 from the register and shove more extensions into a garbage bag.
This incident is just the latest in a spate of hair extension heists that have been sweeping across the country.
Remy hair extensions, which cost anywhere from $100 to thousands of dollars per pack, have become highly sought after, and an underground market for the goods has popped up in response.
"They're selling them to hair salons," said Shayna Crosby, who works at John's Beauty Supply. "People even sell them online or out of the trunk of their cars."
Related: Tons of Nutella stolen in food crime spree
The remy hair frenzy is not without merit. They're the highest grade of real, human hair on the market, because the cuticles are kept intact and not stripped. This means they look natural and stay shiny, soft and tangle-free.
But the locks, which are often sewn in at salons, come at a high price. The average person uses two packs each time and the hair needs to be replaced every three to six months. This works out to hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars each year.
In the last eight months alone, there have been two similar beauty supply store burglaries in Chicago, according to police officer Jose Estrada.
Last year, robbers made away with a reported $230,000 worth of extensions from the 35th Street Beauty Supply store in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood. A year earlier, thieves bypassed Beauty One's register and beelined straight for the remy packs, taking $80,000 of the product.
Yoonjin Han, who works at Beauty One, said she hears these heists happen even more often -- at least once a month.
They aren't just happening in Chicago. Hair extensions robberies have been reported across the country, from Texas to Oklahoma to Florida.
While the thefts are on the rise, there isn't an official count. An FBI spokesman said its crime data aren't broken down by "specific details such as hair extensions."
Related: A $160,000 jewelry heist at the Four Seasons
Once the extensions are taken from stores, experts say thieves have no problem moving them.
"People who have the audacity and the ingenuity to do this will be able to sell them," said Neal Lester, an English professor at Arizona State University who has been lecturing about hair for the last 25 years. "It's no different from selling DVDs, where they are sold out of the back of your trunk."
They're even easier to make off with, and to get away with, than other products that commonly make their way into underground markets, like iPhones or over-the-counter medication, since the extensions aren't marked with bar codes or serial numbers. Once they're stolen, they're virtually impossible to trace or tie back to a store.
Lester says that the pricey hairpieces have grown ubiquitous in recent years, as documented by movies like comedian Chris Rock's "Good Hair," which shed light on the lengths women go to -- and premiums they cough up -- to keep up their looks.
"The trend speaks to the notion that hair is so intricately wrapped to one's identity that there are risks people take," Lester said. "And it's a telling moment in the economy, that people are now ready and willing to pay such a price."


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NEW YORK (AP) — Facing intense scrutiny from President Donald Trump and his Republican allies, Hunter
Biden said Sunday he will step down from the board of directors of a Chinese-backed private equity firm
at the end of the month as part of a pledge not to work on behalf of any foreign-owned companies should
his father win the presidency.
Biden, the 49-year-old son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, revealed his plan in an
internet post written by his attorney, George Mesires, who outlined a defense of the younger Biden's
work in Ukraine and China, which has emerged as one of Trump's chief lines of attack against Hunter's
father despite no proof of impropriety.
"Hunter makes the following commitment: Under a Biden Administration, Hunter will readily comply
with any and all guidelines or standards a President Biden may issue to address purported conflicts of
interest, or the appearance of such conflicts, including any restrictions related to overseas business
interests. In any event, Hunter will agree not to serve on boards of, or work on behalf of, foreign
owned companies," Mesires wrote.
He continued: "He will continue to keep his father personally uninvolved in his business affairs,
while availing himself as necessary and appropriate to the Office of the White House Counsel to help
inform his application of the Biden Administration's guidelines or standards to his business
Joe Biden, speaking to reporters after a union forum in suburban Des Moines, Iowa, said his son did not
discuss that decision with him before posting the statement.
"No one has asserted my son did a single thing wrong," Biden added, pounding his finger into
the podium, "except a lying president."
And Biden promised to bar his family members from occupying any office within the White House and said
they won't "sit in meetings as if they are a Cabinet member." That was a jab at Trump, who
taps daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, as advisers. Biden did not say if his pledge meant
that Jill Biden, his wife, would not get the office traditionally assigned to first ladies, should he
He further vowed that no one in his family will have "any business relationship with anyone that
relates to a foreign corporation or foreign country."
Hunter Biden's work overseas sits at the center of the House impeachment inquiry into Trump, who has
admitted to asking foreign powers to investigate Hunter Biden's business dealings abroad.
The White House released a rough transcript of a call in which Trump asks Ukraine's new president,
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to probe Biden's family and Ukraine's role in the 2016 election that put Trump in
office. Trump has also encouraged China to dig into Hunter Biden's work in that country, asserting
without evidence that earned $1.5 billion from a "sweetheart" business deal there.
The president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is also under increasing scrutiny for his efforts to
dig into Hunter Biden's business background. Late last week, two businessmen involved in Giuliani's
efforts to investigate Hunter Biden's dealings in Ukraine were charged with federal campaign finance
Still, Republicans reacted to news of Hunter Biden's decision to step away from the Chinese-backed BHR
Equity Investment Fund Management Co. with deep skepticism.
"I think this is just another way to save a flailing campaign that's going down," Georgia Rep.
Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said on Fox News Channel's
"Sunday Morning Futures." "He knows he's in trouble and this is just another way to try and
detract attention
On the same show, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Hunter Biden "should have done this
quite a while ago."
Mesires noted repeatedly that there is no evidence of wrongdoing against Hunter Biden, despite
intensifying attacks from Trump before the 2020 election.
"Despite extensive scrutiny, at no time has any law enforcement agency, either domestic or foreign,
alleged that Hunter engaged in wrongdoing at any point during his five-year term," Mesires said in
his Sunday post of Biden's experience in Ukraine.
The attorney wrote that Hunter Biden worked as an unpaid board member for BHR Equity Investment Fund
Management Co. "based on his interest in seeking ways to bring Chinese capital to international
"To date, Hunter has not received any compensation for being on BHR's board of directors,"
Mesires said. "He has not received any return on his investment; there have been no distributions
to BHR shareholders since Hunter obtained his equity interest."
One of Biden's Democratic presidential rivals praised the move, noting that Trump's children are openly
trading on his name in business deals around the world while Trump occupies the Oval Office.
"I think it demonstrates the difference in standards relative to the White House," said Pete
Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
"I mean, here you have Hunter Biden stepping down from a position in order to make sure, even though
there's been no accusation of wrongdoing — doing something just to make sure there's not even the
appearance of a conflict of interests, while, in the White House, the president of the United States is
a walking conflict of interest," he said.


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Gary Oldman
actor, director
Born: 3/21/1958
Birthplace: London, England
Oldman is known for his mastery of accents and psychotic roles like Sid Vicious (Sid and Nancy, 1986) and assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (Oliver Stone's JFK, 1991). After graduating cum laude from Rose Bruford School of Speech and Drama, Oldman toured Europe and South America as a member of the Glasgow Citizen's Theater. His feature films include Immortal Beloved (1994), Dracula (1992), Romeo is Bleeding (1993), The Fifth Element (1997), Air Force One (1997), Lost In Space (1998), The Contender (2000) and Hannibal (2001). His first writing and directing project Nil By Mouth (1997) was nominated for two awards at Cannes and won a BAFTA Award for best screenplay. It features startling insight into the (presumably autobiographical) life inside a working-class dysfunctional family.


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Tina Fey is taking herself out of the running.
Despite her highly praised turn cohosting the Golden Globe Awards this year with pal Amy Poehler, the funnylady has no plans to emcee the 2014 Oscars despite William Shatner's shout-out during the opening sketch of Sunday's ceremony.
Of course, viewers of Hollywood's Biggest Night will remember the Star Trek star visiting host Seth MacFarlane "from the future" to explain why the "Family Guy" guru's stint fared so badly relative to past Oscar hosts and begging to know, "Why couldn't they get Tina and Amy to host?"
Tina Fey visits Snow White at Disney World's Epcot
Now in an interview with the Huffington Post, the 42-year-old Fey said that while "it's an honor to be 'Shatnered,'" she has no plans to take the TV legend up on his suggestion and reteam with the "Parks and Recreation" star for the Academy Awards.
"I just feel like that gig is so hard," she told the site. "Especially for, like, a woman--the amount of months that would be spent trying on dresses alone...no way."
All humor aside, when asked whether that answer was definitive and there was even the slightest chance, the "SNL" alum pretty much quashed the idea.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
"I wish I could tell you there was," she added.
"30 Rock" series finale recap: TGS signs off one last time
With her critically acclaimed TV comedy "30 Rock" now in syndication glory, Fey is concentrating her sights these days on features including "Admission," an Ivy League university-set comedy costarring Paul Rudd unspooling on March 22 and the highly anticipated sequel "The Muppets...Again!," which just started lensing in London.
She also plans to join forces again with her "Date Night" hubby Steve Carell for the flick "Mail Order Groom," principal photography for which gets underway this summer.


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Tag Archives: men
One of the largest segments in the consumer spending industry is the Lifestyle segment. This segment basically focuses on the well-being of an individual and also gives importance to rest, relaxation with modern day flare. It encompasses such things such as art, home decor, fashion, health, education and of course, confectionery. The Modah store located in Mississauga, Ontario however, went further by tapping into a segment…of this segment. Modah focuses on being the largest Canadian lifestyle store catered to the people practicing the Islamic Faith or people who have an affinity towards Middle-Eastern design and flare. According to a report by Thomson Reuters, Muslim consumer spending on food and lifestyle products and services was estimated at $1.8 trillion (USD) globally in 2014 and is projected to reach $2.6tn in 2020. Major brands such as Mango and DKNY have begun to adapt to this audience by introducing more modest clothing ranges, but it has also inspired a raft of new start-ups from within the Muslim community. Just from this stat alone, many businesses are popping up especially in the Greater Toronto Area. The one issue they all face is how and where can they be able to showcase their products and generate sales? Back in 2012, Samir Aziz's wife, Nafiza, possessed a small home-based business selling women's clothing. As her success and publicity began to rise in the community, many other people who sold various other products always approached the couple to find ways in marketing their goods as well. From that, Samir & Nafiza had an idea to actually open a brick and mortar store not only selling the women's clothing they initially ventured into, but also engage other fledgling entrepreneurs to take part by displaying their products to sell. The store needed to be in a prime location where Muslims frequent quite often and finally settled on a 4,500 sq ft unit in 2014 in the Dixie and Eglinton area of Mississauga where numerous other restaurants and various establishments currently reside. Due to the large space, just having their clothing business and one or two other branded products wasn't enough to alleviate some of the overhead costs. So Samir and Nafiza had an idea and that was to beautify the store space to mimic the stylings of a Pier-1 Imports or a Homesense and invite vendors to be part of a business trade show at their grand opening. The… Read more »


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This Girl Loves The Warriors
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Philadelphia, PA – The headlines coming from nationally respected reporters earlier this week were bold and resolved.
The NFL and the Players Association were closer to HGH testing than ever before.
Yeah, not so fast.
The reality of the situation is far more nuanced and the only thing agreed to by the sides was a glorified stalling tactic, a population study designed to determine if there's basis for the union's contention that NFL players may have higher than normal HGH levels when compared to the general population.
In other words -- pump up the baseline for when a flawed test is finally implemented.
The NFL and the union, of course, first agreed to have players blood-tested for HGH as part of their 2011 labor deal. Since then the two sides have balked over the details of any testing program with the NFL backing WADA's (the politically-fueled World Anti-Doping Administration) dubious testing procedures, and the NFLPA bristling over the appeals process and insisting on the population study first, something the league had consistently deemed unnecessary.
Call this war junk science versus junk science with each opponent trying to trump the other with the disingenuous card.
Unmasking the facts in this issue isn't all that easy and why so many who should be asking substantive questions are just parroting the talking points from the side feeding them the information.
First a quick background lesson. Human growth hormone is a naturally occurring substance in the body but the synthetic version has been labeled a performance-enhancer by those in power. All agree synthetic HGH has been used by athletes for well over two decades to gain an advantage in performance.
Matt Chaney, a former college football player who authored the book, "Spiral of Denial: Muscle Doping in American Football," explained why HGH is so popular among athletes.
"One reason is the drug's rapid rejuvenation of depleted muscles," Chaney, one of the foremost experts in the country regarding PEDs, said, "and many athletes believe HGH helps restore joints from wear and tear, even injury."
Over the past 10 years or so many anti-aging clinics have popped up around the country touting the benefits of growth hormone, and it's now used among many healthy individuals of means like Hollywood's elite. It also has many detractors, who point to its side effects like an increased risk of diabetes, glucose intolerance, carpal tunnel syndrome, joint pain, muscle pain, and even cancer from long-term use.
In 2007, Major League Baseball's Mitchell Report detailed numerous incidences of established growth hormone abuse among players going back to the late 1990s.
More recently, Canadian doctor Anthony Galea pleaded guilty to smuggling unapproved drugs, including human growth hormone, into the United States to treat professional athletes (including NFL players), while Biogenesis of America, a Miami-based anti-aging clinic suspected of supplying performance- enhancing substances, is currently under investigation by the MLB office, something which resulted in the high-profile suspension of former NL MVP Ryan Braun.
Testing for growth hormone in sport began with an isoforms-assay blood test, a highly-suspect method which has been used to detect the prohibited use of HGH on a limited basis since 2004 and on a world wide level since 2008.
There is little positive peer review for the isoforms test, however, and it has a terribly short detection window, one which critics say is less than a day, while WADA claims is up to 72 hours.
"Well, if you know the guy's going to shoot up this morning, and you arrive at noon, OK," Dr. Don Catlin, a former tester for Olympic and pro sports who operates the non-profit Anti-Doping Research laboratory in Los Angeles, once said when discussing the test.
"The GH-isoform has not had a truly independent examination, as the NFLPA rightly contends," Chaney added. "It's a research porker thus far, for its scant pieces of public literature that are basically authored and released by WADA engineers. Catlin, for one, has received nothing close to legitimate validation of the isoform, or documentation he's been promised by WADA officials for years, since the Athens Olympics (2004)."
A newer biomarker test unveiled by Dr. Peter Sonksen in London last year before the Olympic Games there (still think this stuff isn't political?) if far more promising and claims to spot HGH use for 21 days. Sonksen, meanwhile, has credibility because he has been both an associate and critic of WADA officials.
"The biomarker test looked good on paper, (but) once implemented I think the WADA scientists are skunked, unsure of what they have in results," Chaney said. "Subjectivity (and) interpretation of results is involved, and I think anti-doping committees are hitting hell trying to agree on whom to suspend. WADA scientists may be able to suspect an athlete through bio-marking, but they cannot verify much, as far as who's really doping with foreign substances, and they know that. I think they're generally skunked by blood- profiling data."
Penn State epidemiologist Charles E. Yesalis, another expert on sports doping, has always disliked WADA's free and easy approach to scientific protocol, along with its habit of implementing what he considers faulty approaches in punitive anti-doping.
"I'm just astounded," Yesalis said in February 2010 when NFL and MLB officials started talking favorably about WADA blood testing for growth hormone. "I mean, if you're going to ruin somebody's life, and if you don't have (vetted methodology) totally locked up, to me that is immoral and unethical. I'd rather see five million cheaters compete than see scientists bastardizing themselves."
Chaney also took aim at WADA:
"I think WADA specializes in public relations, not preventing doping and protecting athletes and fair play," he said. "Anyone who says WADA has successfully battled doping in the Olympics and others sports is moronic or, worse, deceitful. Performances of Olympic athletes continue to elevate through the roof, especially for the speed factor, with no reasonable explanation other than doping."
To this day scientific literature still lacks significant credible review on the WADA isoforms test, and serious questions remain regarding the biomarker one, yet the NFL's senior vice president of law and labor policy, Adolpho Birch, has rubber-stamped both.
"From our perspective, there are no significant detractions to its effectiveness or reliability," Birch said back in 2011. "We believe, like every other test we have ever used, we will be able to improve that (detection) time."
Sure, the NFL can improve on what scientists around the world can't.
Catlin remains a harsh skeptic of HGH tests in general and believes that calibrating a bio-marker system relies on setting an accurate GH baseline and other substance levels, something he sees no evidence of in any independent literature.
Simply put, at this stage HGH detection is a red-herring designed to throw off people who aren't well-versed on the subject.
"The isoform "test," of course, definitely shouldn't be in use for a democratic, free society," Chaney said. "To suspend a worker in America for this bogus method, branding him or her a "cheater" and denying a livelihood, would be unconscionable. I had held hope for the biomarker, for I like and respect Dr. Sonksen, but something's going wrong for that test too, once employed by WADA."
To the obtuse, the NFL and its players association are trying to ensure clean competition and a level playing field sort of like Superman was for truth, justice and the American way.
To the lucid, the groups are offering up a few unlucky sacrifices to the altar of "cheating" in hopes of moving forward unfettered.
And the end game isn't about protecting the shield, cleaning up the game or caring for its players, it's about winning a public relations war.
"I don't believe any test is credible, not yet, for turning back HGH use in an athlete population, especially a field of affluent, influential individuals such as NFL players and their support networks," Chaney concluded.


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Some of the App Previews in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview offer fairly complete user experiences, closely mirroring how they will work once the OS ships publicly later this year. Music is not one of those apps.
In the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, there are App Previews ... And then there are App Previews. And by that I mean, some are more incomplete than others. And in the incomplete category of App Previews, few are as lackluster and incomplete as are the new digital media apps. Music is a particularly horrible example.
If you're familiar with the late 2011 Xbox 360 Dashboard Update, you'll recognize the Music user experience immediately. It's an illogically arranged, full-screen, Metro-style disaster that is laid out horizontally with left-to-right scrolling. If you think this looks good at first glance, all you need to do is actually use it for a while: In use it reveals itself to be almost worthless.
First, the layout. If you consider how Microsoft has actually arranged the groups from left to right, you'll see the following: Spotlight, Collection, and then Music Marketplace. Which means that the first and third group are essentially advertisements for content you can purchase online whereas your own content is sandwiched in between. And in case it's not obvious why that's bad, consider this: The Collection group is off-screen on a standard 1366 x 768 Windows 8 display. So you have to scroll over to find your own music.
OK, fine. Microsoft is pushing commerce over usability. But the deeper you dive into this rickety waste of time, the more you realize that Microsoft is in fact pushing almost everything over usability. Dig into your own collection, for example, and you'll see a pleasant enough looking layout with square Metro-style tiles coincidentally conforming to the aspect ratio of the typical CD album design.
You can sort by artists or songs, too, and by genre, though that latter choice is under a weird widget menu (All) instead of along the top menu as it is in Zune. There's no ability to make playlists, or play them, from what I can see.
Select an album and you see the weird effect that plagues both Music and Video, the latter of which I'll examine soon. That is, instead of displaying a new screen for that album, any tiles to the right of the album tile animate to the right, opening up space for an in-place song list. It's slow, and terrible looking, and then of course the song list scrolls up-down (vertically) in its tiny little compartment. Ugh.
You can press a prominent Play button to play an entire album, but if you select a song (cue that "wa-waa-waaaaaah" sound again), it doesn't play. Instead, yet another in-place area expands with a new Play (and Add to Now Playing) button. Seriously?
Yes, seriously.
Playback somewhat resembles the Zune PC software or the Xbox 360 music playback experience, with a full-screen grid of album art that appears to be culled from some online source and not your own collection. Here, you get decent and touch friendly full-screen playback controls, but no shuffle or repeat options? Geesh.
The whole thing is just lackluster.
Return to the previous screen, however, and a new Now Playing bar appears at the bottom of the screen. This interface does provide shuffle and repeat (finally), as well as other playback controls. Hooray for consistency.
The Marketplace stuff is equally bad. When you consider that Microsoft has almost 20 million songs in its collection, providing an ideal layout for discovering music is paramount. But the Marketplace interface provides screen real estate-hogging tiles and just four main areas: Features, Genres, Albums, and Artists.
And if you dive into Genres, for example, you're shown the same lackluster UI for one genre (Rock by default), with a pop-up list for choosing other genres. This is no way to browse. So you're clearly going to have to search for music instead, which sort of obviates the ability to "discover" new music effectively.
There's a decent live tile effect, and an OK snap interface, but only for playback. It works with whatever content is stored in your Music library. And that's about it for pluses.
The Music app, snapped (on the right)
A list of what's missing from this app would almost be too long to contemplate, but I'll leave you with this general thought: I've written and spoken many times about the differences between the consumption interfaces of tablets (iPads, Windows 8/Metro) and the productivity interfaces of real computers (Windows 8 desktop), and never is this driven home more clearly than by the digital media apps in Windows 8. These apps, which include Music, and also Video and Photos, are not generally designed to acquire, edit, or manage your collections. They are meant almost solely to enjoy (or "consume") them.
So while Music does offer a way to buy music online from the one store no one wants to use, it doesn't include a way to rip songs from CD, or to edit songs, change album art, and the like. There's no Zune Pass compatibility, not yet at least, which should be troubling to anyone wondering if this support is coming. There's no way to make, edit, or even play playlists. There's no support for devices of any kind, not for Zune, Windows Phone, or Plays For Sure-based MP3 players. There's not a heck of lot working here at all. You cannot use it as your only Windows 8-based music experience.
This app is so broken, currently, that if you navigate into the Marketplace, you can't get back out to your Collection because the Back button is disabled. (And vice versa.) So you have to force quit it to do so. I mean, seriously. I get the App Preview concept, but this one is almost a PowerPoint demo. It's just not there yet. So I'm not sure how good it will ever be.
Fans of Zune know that Microsoft can do this kind of app right. And we have to sort of trust and hope they will do so here. In App Preview form, however, there's little evidence that this app will have a great future. It can only get better.


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In the first part of this series we looked at installing the latest version of the Python Tools for Visual Studio (PTVS) using the free Visual Studio Integrated Shell along with the free Enthought Python Distribution. In this installment we'll look at using PTVS and the Pyvot add-in to create and manipulate Excel data as well as an example of using NumPy and SciPy to generate a histogram.
NumPy and SciPy have a large following in the academic community and are used by researchers and students alike to perform serious scientific computations. There were a large number of tutorials and papers covering different aspects of these packages at the recent Pycon 2012 conference held in Santa Clara, Ca. Now with PTVS you can use the power of the Visual Studio IDE to build and test Python applications utilizing SciPy and NumPy on the Windows platform
Pyvot and Excel
Pyvot is distributed as an .msi file, which must be installed separately from PTVS. It also requires CPython 2.6 or 2.7 along with the Python for Windows extensions. You'll get both of those if you install the EPD free distribution as described in part 1. You'll find the Pyvot download on the PTVS codeplex site. There are a few additional steps that must be completed once the basic installation completes. This consists of actually installing Pyvot into the locally installed Python instance. You can accomplish this right from the Visual Studio IDE (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Install Pyvot into Python 2.7
Once you have Pyvot installed there will be a new template application available from the Visual Studio new project menu (see Figure 2). This creates a shell application (see Figure 3) that will create a fixed set of rows and columns in an instance of Excel (see Figure 4). Note that you'll need a copy of Excel installed to actually run the sample. Pyvot provides a two-way bridge to Excel, meaning you can both "set" values in an Excel spreadsheet and "get" or read from an open Excel spreadsheet. All communication is handled using COM and is done through the Excel application object model.
Figure 2: New template application
Figure 3: Shell application
Figure 4: Fixed set of rows and columns in an instance of Excel
All the functionality from the Pyvot package is also available from the Python interactive command line. It's fully dynamic as well, which means you can make changes in Excel and then see the results from the Python command line. The interactive interpreter is perfect for testing a chunk of code without the need for the typical compile-then-run loop. You'll find a link to a YouTube video on the PTVS site showing how to interact with Excel from both the Python interactive command line and from code.
Scientific Computing with NumPy and SciPy
One of the best ways to quickly get up to speed on a new library or coding technique is to look at sample code. The SciPy.org site includes a Cookbook page with a long list of sample programs for various scientific computation scenarios. The EPD free distribution also includes Matplotlib for plotting purposes. We were able to copy a sample program from the Matplotlib site (see Figure 5) and run it without modification to produce the graph shown in Figure 6.
Figure 5: Sample program from the Matplotlib
Figure 6: Sample program graph
The interactive command window works well when experimenting with different plot types. You'll also have access to code completion and IntelliSense from the interactive window as well (see Figure 7). Python uses the triple quote convention to provide a standard way of documenting modules. This documentation is available through the reserved help command and also shows up when you type in the name of a function to give you a hint on what parameters are required (see Figure 8).
Figure 7: Code completion and IntelliSense
Figure 8: Hints
Wrap Up
In this two part series we've shown you how capable Visual Studio is for real-world Python code development. The Pyvot add-in delivers a wealth of possibilities for writing code to manipulate Excel data. With the addition of NumPy and SciPy you have a full-featured scientific computation and visualization capability for free!